So I had a thought. What if you could sacrifice a tile to destroy an existing tile already in play, which you then imediately (that turn) had to replace to make a fully legal word, and the sacrifice cost you (20 - pt value of tile sacrificed) points? So for example, you sacrifice an E, you lose 19 points, but sacrificing a J would only lose you 12 points, and the sacrificed tile would be set aside, out of the game, and I think it ought to be limited to one per turn. Of course, this requires playtesting... anyone willing to give it a shot and see how it goes?

Nope, nothing's happened.

Yeah, right. :-)

Nothing notable that comes to mind.. just getting Andrea's stuff moved in in prep for her moving in in August (but really, she's leaving for CA on July 3rd, so we pretty much have until then), getting used to the new place. But I thought I'd just say yo, and mention that i'm still around..

That makes twice in under 5 months i've moved. That's gotta be some kinda record. Still have a few things in Salem I need to get, but the Huge Pile Of Stuff is being shrunk, with Andrea's help.. I haven't thrown away so much stuff in years. If ever.

Go me.

I'm moving, again, this time within Portland, to an awesome place where the bathrooms don't smell like smoke and I don't have to go downstairs and back upstairs just to get to the apartment. Whew!

I had my first bowl of ice cream in 2 years tonight.. Breyers lactose free vanilla bean ice cream. Sprinkled with granola, even.

*bliss*

In case you haven't been around the places I've been announcing lately, I'm engaged. :) We have a date, August 4th, in Las Vegas, with only family in attendance (since that will end up being lots). And yes, we chose a suitable geeky place to have our ceremony, to be followed by a meandering drive up the California/Oregon coast for our honeymoon.

I'm pleased. :)

ETA: It's my brother's birthday, so everyone line up to give chris_goodwin a spanking...

The other day I dropped into Goodwill to kill time after dropping Andrea off at a baby shower, and they had a little Bodum french press for $3, so I grabbed it. Tonight I whipped up a cup after discussing with a friend the appropriate formula (which is 2/3 oz of coffee (coarse ground), 8 oz water at 190F, steep for 4 min, press and pour)...

Even with the old fine-ground coffee (not the coarse) that wasn't anywhere near fresh, it was far and away the best cup of coffee I've had in my life. It didn't even need to be super sweet, like I usually make it, because there was actual coffee flavor in it. I was blown away. Of course, due to the super fine grind, I had a ton of sludge in the cup, so I'm gonna go get some coffee beans and grind them coarse sometime soon. If this improves anymore, I shall be hooked, for sure.

down 1.8 this week from last, total lost, 18.6lbs.

down 3.4lbs, this week, for 15.2 total. 5% down. Whew!

I'm down 2.2lbs this week, 11.8 total. Whew.
Still need to drink more water and exercise.

This week, down 3.6lbs, 9.6lbs total. Go me.

When I was growing up, Salem consistently received awards for the quality of their drinking water, and so I became spoiled. Didn't matter where I went, I couldn't ever drink the water, because it was either substandard to my picky tastes, or completely nasty. So, after 25 days of living in Portland, I finally got up the nerve to drink water from the tap. And I was not surprised. Eww.

However, nothing a little True Lime and Splenda can't fix. 1 and 2, respectively, to a glass, and voila, instant limeade. Weak, sure, but just enough to take the edge off the water which is prolly fine for most people, but my spoiled palate just can't handle.

Someday I'll have one of these, and it will no longer be an issue.

Another week, another 3lb gone. Go me.

I wonder what would happen if I actually, say, drank water and exercised? :-)

(I'll start tomorrow... we'll learn next week)

Frozen sliced carrots, 1c of brown rice w/ a touch of Mrs. Dash, soy sauce, and Cholula, and one chicken breast cooked on the Foreman grill (devirginizing it, actually). End result: One stuffed Flaim, at 9 points. w00t!

For those that don't know, Points (tm) are from the flex plan, one of the WW options. Through some fancy calculus when you start the program, it's determined how many points you get per day (I get 44), which is your goal, plus 35 wildcard points for the week, to use whenever you like, and which reset when you weigh in once a week. I personally don't plan on using the 35 very much, cuz if you skip em, you lose weight faster. Or so they say. This being week 2, I have no real evidence yet. :-) But I'm feeling better about every day, so who cares what weight I lose...

lost 3lb. Go me.

Shall I whip up a filter for folks interested in seeing me chat about weight loss? chime in, or opt in... my normal inclination is to post everything for everyone except in rare circumstances..

It's handy when the code generated includes the cut... handy, that.

( Who comments the most on this journal? )

I do believe I just had to relearn how to make a bed. So much real estate... almost a shame I'm going to be all alone my first night. ;-)

(Oh, and I'm considering the saving up for a pet deposit. I miss my girl.)

I'm sitting here waiting ever-so-impatiently for my new bed to be delivered. What's been going on... I started Weight Watchers on Wednesday. I went because my girlfriend asked me to go, but after getting to and through the meeting, I really like the program, and despite my initial trepidations I think I'll stick with it.
I'm still in the process of moving to my new place. I just got a dining room table and chairs, and the aforementioned bed, but really have nothing else. Friends have promised me a sofa bed, but it comes down to when and how we'll get it over here.

*knock knock* Woo, the bed is here!

and Oh Yeah, go click on my mini city, Flaimtopia.

Really.

(I still click on yours from time to time, when you post it.)

I guess a lot has been happening for me lately, so here's the lowdown:

First, I started seeing a lovely lady right at the beginning of November. That we broke up and got back together again before the month was out just means it's gonna be quite a ride. :) She's fiesty, beautiful, talented, and kicks me in the ass. Alot. Whew.

Also, I started a new job right before Christmas, working as the single IT guy for a sales office in Portland. It's been fun, so far. Since my predecessor was by all rights a raving lunatic with people problems, I can only assume that having a guy who's nice and attentive and likes helping people in the role will just make my job that much easier, as people start to like me, and later, hopefully, to properly bribe me. Preferably with chocolate. :-)

And lastly, I signed a lease today on an apartment in Hillsdale. Picked up the keys today. Probably will start packing up and moving tomorrow, and spend tomorrow night there. Let's see.. air matress, sleeping bag.. all set! Still waiting on the bed, tho...

Overall, things are going well. 'Bout damn time...

In theory, the water problem I have in my car will be solved by the two cut-off pantyhose legs I filled with crystal super-absorbent cat litter and placed on the soaking floorboard of my car.

In practice... we'll see.

My goal was to make an extreme version of the 'Do Not Eat' packets that come in everything these days. Any ideas why this wouldn't work? Anyone? Bueller?

'twas long, and I think I'm the most popular guy in the office. (They haven't had an IT guy in 3mo.)

I'm also freakin tired, and am going to bed now.

I'm a sheep, so I went and made a minicity, Flaimtopia (which was my 2nd choice after Kuzcotopia was already taken :p )

Click me. Really. I clicked yours.

I start Thursday.

Everyone celebrate. I once again dodged the Unemployment Insurance bullet, and skated through my short stretch of unemployment on my savings...

Happy Birthday dearest crzymtlgrl!! :)

Mark 12:28-31
28One of the teachers ofthe law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

 29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.^[e] 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'^[f] 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'^[g]There is no commandment greater than these."

I've read this countless times but it seems I've glossed over a key point. Love your neighbor as yourself. But what happens if you don't really love yourself? You might say to a child "Stop! Don't touch that stove, it's hot!" out of genuine concern for their wellbeing. Or say to a spouse "You really need to cut back on the beer" because you truly care that their actions are affecting their lives. But how many situations do we put ourselves in where we ignore the same things that we should be telling ourselves, out of genuine concern, but don't? Things like "Don't eat that, really, you've had enough." or "2 beers is enough." or "I really ought to stop smoking." or "I really need to exercise [more]." If I don't love myself enough to be concerned that I'm obese, or get winded climbing stairs, or let people walk all over me, can I really do the same for someone else? I think part of loving someone is protecting them in ways they can't. It seems like it's easy for me to get to a point in a relationship with someone that I'd happily die for them if it meant they'd live. Why is it so much harder to do that for myself?

Through some mixup with the idiots from MCI that called to entice my dad to switch to their local phone service, our local phone service has been cancelled. Despite their assurances that it wouldn't mess up the DSL connection, it surely has, and we're all offline for the foreseeable future. I can't bridge a dialup connection, and that's all I have via my phone-as-modem. So getting the server back online for anything is just gonna be impossible. So my web service and email is down, also.

Hopefully we can call Qwest tomorrow and let them know MCI lied, and get our service restored ASAP. MCI was called, but they refused to cancel without keeping our number, the fucking bastards, so I consider that slamming. Never liked MCI anyways.

and Oh yeah, I'm single again. In case any of you missed the memo that I was dating someone. Long story, but suffice to say it was a mutually agreed-upon inability to continue in a relationship.

Gives me a chance to catch up on sleep, or the 2 weeks of TV i've downloaded w/o watching..

WHY THE GUN IS CIVILIZATION
By Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and
force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of
either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding
under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of
those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact
through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social
interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is
the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use
reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your
threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon
that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger,
a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang
banger, and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk
guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical
strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a
defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad
force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more
civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm
makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course,
is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed
either by choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most
of a mugger's potential marks are armed.

People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by
the young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of
a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a
successful living in a society where the state has granted him a
force monopoly.

Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal
that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is
fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are
won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury
on the loser.

People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't
constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings
and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun
makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker
defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is
level. The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an
octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply
wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal
and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight,
but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means
that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm
afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit
the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only
the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from
the equation...and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.